Saturday, January 23, 2010

The blood and guts...

For those of you birth-junkies out there I don't want to let go of the opportunity to record CeCe's birth story while I'm on this (hopefully long-lived) blog posting kick. So, with no further ado...

It was a dark and stormy night, and the power was out so we were dependent on candles for our light...OK, not really - but wouldn't that have made the story exciting?

In reality Sunday morning (Dec. 13th, the day before my due date) was really gross - a "wintry mix", as they say. I was pretty clearly in early labor - having lots of braxton hicks and some real contractions and feeling nauseated and supremely cranky. Somehow we managed to bundle everyone up for Mass and walk over to the church and huddle together in an irritable, whiny clump in the corner of the cryroom. After mass the priest, Fr. O'Malley, took my arm and walked me all the way home - I must have looked pretty pathetic to illicit such kindness.

I sat around all day watching It's a Wonderful Life and trying to write Christmas cards (which, incidentally, are still in a pile at the foot of my bed) and by the time we put the kids to bed at 8 pm I began to think we'd made the switch to progressive labor. I made John read Sherlock Holmes to me while I tried to fall asleep and my complete inability to doze through contractions made it clear that the time had come to hit the road.

We were the 7th couple checking into the birthing center in the last 2 hours so things were pretty busy on the unit. The 6th couple was immediately ahead of us and we got to chatting. She was 17 and he was 18 and he tried to keep us entertained (or impressed) with tales of his daring exploits on a four-wheeler while he had a broken arm. It was a strangely inappropriate topic of conversation as his girl-friend was breathing through her contractions. I felt very old and mature, as did John.

I was at 5 cm. in Triage and at 6 when they checked me again in the delivery room so things were definitely on the move. This would put us at about midnight on the 14th (her due date, believe it or not). I had decided to give a no-pain-meds birth a try again if this labor proved to be as efficient as Rosie's was. So we labored on until about 2 a.m. and I was ready to be done. Things were getting really intense but my water hadn't broken and since I had labored with Moses at 9.5 cm for 7ish hours before they broke my water I decided to ask if they would break it now so that I had a shot at doing this without an epidural. No such luck, the nurse said. They were bound to wait to get a 2nd round of anti-biotics into me because of the strep-B rules. Oi!

So, after realizing that this was a pretty inconvenient environment to attempt a "natural birth" in and that I was so exhausted and could not possibly labor for up to 2 more hours before pushing I decided to ask for the epidural. I got it and before the medicine even had a chance to kick in my water broke, they checked me and I was at 10 and felt the urge to push about 5 minutes later.

[side note: The reason that I wanted to "go natural" was because I was did not want a repeat of my birth experience with Gus. I was induced with him the day after my due date because I didn't want to drive "over the mountain and through the woods", literally, to get to the hospital while I was in hard labor. Since I was induced I went in expecting to get an epidural and I don't regret doing things that way. I think it was the right choice for me since we had just moved and I had been experiencing tremendous anxiety about everything in my life and the "birth experience" being so controlled relieved at least some of my anxiety. This time I was in a very different place emotionally and I didn't want to have such a controlled birth. I wanted to experience some of the rush and pain and joy and the extremes that bringing a baby into the world can be. I wanted less control and more spontaneity. And I went natural for long enough that I accomplished that goal and am therefore very happy with the result even though I didn't accomplish all I set out to do.]

I pushed twice and they were saying that her head was right there and I guess they meant it because all of a sudden things hurt a lot and her head and one hand were out. The hand coming out at the same time was the cause of most of the pain. Next push she was all the way out and purply and vernixy and wonderful. She didn't have the monster cry that Rosie had, just a little kitten-cry. She was 8 lbs 1 oz, 20 and 3/4 in. long, born at 3:46 am (hence the "tired eyes" that John and I have in all the pictures) on Dec. 14th, Feast of St. John of the Cross. Her name is Cecilia Noel after St. Cecilia and the Feast of the Nativity. Not the suggested, Johnicka, after John of the cross - you're very welcome CeCe.

Recovery has been longer and harder then with the other kids, probably because of the other kids :). But also, she doesn't really like to sleep at night (she was up nearly every night between 3 and 5 am for the first 5 weeks) and is frequently gassy and fussy when she is awake. We've also been battling thrush since week 2 accompanied by cracking, bleeding "nickles", as Rosie calls them. But she is not colicky and John had 5 (count them, FIVE) weeks off after she was born and we had family and friends stay with us for a week after Christmas to help out (here's your shout-out James!) so in spite of some difficulties it's been manageable. The kids are all head-over-heals in love with her and have been really good with her too.

But at the moment she needs to nurse again and I'm 15 minutes over the time I alloted to writing this post so it's time for me to move on with life here. Welcome, Cecilia!

3 comments:

Hi!I know everyones birth story is so different and also for each child but I think there are a lot of things we have in common with this one! I was induced for Robby (3 weeks early) for a variety of reasons and overall things went quick-8 hours total from the start of the pit. But I really DID NOT want an epidural either--like I was totallly against it, not because I think you "get more points" for a natural child birth-cause I think as long as you get the kid out-thats great. But b/c as a nurse the ONLY thing that I've ever seen that freaked me out and made me want to pass out was watching epidurals....but I got one. And then went from 7-10 in like 5 minutes and I was mad that I got it. It didn't even work right-which was good cause I had to do some special emergency manuvers at the last minute and couldn't have if it had worked. (hands and kness and back to back a few times). glamerous.

anyway.also robby's hand came out first with his head! ouch---the fingernails were killer!!

enough about me. Glad you are back and guess what? I'm going to get to experience the *joy* of childbirth again in August :)

So glad you're back to blogging; I've missed your updates. I love all kid stories and I can't wait to see more home make-over pictures. Life is good, isn't it? We are blessed. Congratulations on the newest little one and thanks for the birth story. :)

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Our Grand Tour

In September of 2016 John was invited to spend a year at Oxford University as a Visiting Research Scholar and work on his sabbatical project: "Unlocking the Summa - A commentary on the Summa Theologiae." All eight of us will be winging our way to England in August of 2017. We will be in England until June, 2018 (10 months for those who don't like math). As you can imagine - we are overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement at this prospect and are busily preparing for our Grand Tour.

Loves and Loveletts

Lex - somewhere in her mid-30's. Homeschooling mom as well as a homeschool graduate. Lives in a little Burg in the Appalachian mountains but will always have a little Michigan inside her. Mother of 6 that were born within 9 years of each other. Lover of audiobooks, praying through singing, birding, asparagus patches, and photographing kids. Grateful for the gift of community - the beauty, the ugly and the mediocre. Follower of Christ.

John - Late 30's Theology Professor, aka The Love Doctor. Always burning the candle at both ends he works hard during the day to form the future of Catholic priests and in the early mornings and evenings he carts children to and from activities and makes his wife mean G&Ts. Evangelization, providing music for Mass and adoration, sharing insights from St. Thomas Aquinas are what he's most known for in his professional life. Doing the dishes every night, dropping everything to meet us in the ER, and fixing the constant rotation of things the kids break are what he's most popular for here at home.

Anthony - Thirteen. Geography and grammar are where he shines academically - both requiring a precision that Anthony has a hard time not overusing. He enjoys playing soccer as often as possible and he stands out on his team as being a guy with his head and his body in the game - attentive and thinking. He works hard on living with equanimity as an introvert in a crowded, loud, busy home.

Rosie - Ten. Leader of "The Tribe": the three loveletts that were born within 2.5 years. She is a hard worker in school and rarely requires my help, just plugs along and gets her stuff done. She takes a lot of art classes and keeps a nature journal and I love what she is able to observe and translate through a pencil. She loves to make up all sorts of games and fun pretends for the younger member of the family. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a Rosie.

Thomas - Nine and all E. Energetic, enthusiastic, eager, excitable, extroverted, exhilarated and engaged. The only trouble we have with Thomas is that it's hard to keep him busy enough - he has an appetite for life that can be overwhelming! He's been this way ever since he mastered crawling. He was off and the rest is history. Anthony wrote this limerick about Thomas this year.

My brother is energetic

His body is super frenetic

He yells and he jumps

and he gives us all bumps

But Thomas is never pathetic.

This is all true.

Cecilia - Eight. Cece is such a great "smack-dabber". Smack-dab in the middle of the family and always wanting to be part of the team. She is generous, inclusive and positive. We often call her excited, positive, can-do presence, "The Power of Positive-Ce". She has none of her older sister's innate sense of fashion and often rollicks around in outfits that make me question her ability to see colors. And patterns. And cleanliness.

Catherine - 5 going on 30. Probably the most thoughtful and caring person in the house. She is totally normal when it comes to wanting to run with the big kids and "do it myself" and other such developmental standards. What sets her apart in our family is that she is so tuned into how other people are feeling and how her actions effect them. When she throws a fit (which she still does occasionally) she is the only child to offer unprompted apologies and amends. She is our sunshine.

Gloria - 3 and THE BABY. She is well ensconced in her role - having no desire or inclination to reliquish her tyrannical hold on all the people older then her. We do her bidding and she entertains us by singing herself little songs, letting us tickle her and having big beautiful eyes and super long eyelashes.

"Whether she is a mother in the home, or occupies a place in the limelight of public life, or behind cloistered walls, she must be the handmaid of the Lord everywhere ... Were each woman an image of the Mother of God, a Spouse of Christ, an apostle of the Divine Heart, then each would fulfill her feminine vocation no matter what conditions she live in and what worldly activity absorbed her." - St. Edith Stein